Snow Day
by Gorsecloud
Summary: A Spanning Time Holiday Special. They rarely saw snow in Treasure Town, and one of them in fact, had never seen snow before...


**Spanning Time-based holiday special, thought of while I had Josh Groban's "Believe" stuck in my head. Hope you all enjoy, and hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. And yes, Chapter 7 of ST will be up soon. :P**

**Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 (c) Nintendo & Chunsoft  
**

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Snow Day

The temperature and climate around Treasure Town was a warm one, the ocean surrounding the area mediating the extremes in temperature. The summers were generally milder than most, the winters temperate at their coolest. In the latter case, however, once every few years or so, a stubborn arctic mass of air would work its way down into the area, bringing with it a taste of true winter.

One of these years happened not long after the apocalyptic collapse of Temporal Tower had been averted, and one of the saviors – long thought lost – had rejoined her best friend as one of the two most unusual recruits the Wigglytuff Guild had ever added to their ranks.

When Miranda woke up, she became instantly aware of two things – both unusual, though not unfamiliar. The first was readily apparent when she sat up in her nest, looking around in puzzlement. It was cloudy outside the window, they sky completely obscured by dark stormclouds. But it was still bright enough outside that she could tell it was well past daybreak, well past the usual rollcall time. The second, and less important at the moment, was the fact that the air was cold enough to make her shiver slightly.

Ignoring that fact, the Charmander looked around. She glanced over at her partner. Chlora's leaf bobbed gently up and down in time with her slow breathing. She was still sound asleep. But why hadn't someone come to wake them up? The Guild hadn't announced anything the previous day, and Chatot wasn't exactly known for spontaneously giving trainees a day off.

Cautious not to wake Chlora up – who wouldn't want the chance for extra sleep if they could get it! - Miranda crept out of their shared room, down the hallway and into the residents atrium of the Wigglytuff Guild. Looking around for signs of life, she noticed at least Chatot was where he normally was, sitting in the corner nearest to the entrance to Wigglytuff's room, sorting through piles of reports from rescue missions and news from around the world. Still slightly unnerved by the absence of anyone else in the Guild – even Croagunk wasn't at his swap shop – Miranda walked up to him and asked, "What's going on?"

Wigglytuff's assistant jumped slightly, scattering a few papers and whipped around. "What in the- oh. It's you," he sighed, eying Miranda, "What is it?"

"Where is everyone?" Miranda repeated.

"Oh, yes, that," Chatot said distractedly, "No Guildmembers are to go on any missions today. There's a blizzard due in the early afternoon, and we don't want members trapped out in the snow. Not to mention we'll probably be flooded with requests tomorrow to clear up the damage..."

Miranda frowned, then inquired, "Like the hailstorms in the Hidden Land?" She could understand why nobody wanted to be caught out in one of _those_.

"Yes, yes, exactly," he nodded quickly, turning back to his messed up papers, not giving any kind of indication that he had actually paid attention to what she had just said, "You are allowed to run errands or simply lounge about, so long as you are back here in the Guild before the storm hits. Many of the other Guildmembers are out frolicking in the current weather. I suggest you join them, and don't interrupt me when I'm working on paperwork next time."

Miranda frowned in puzzlement. Chatot's manner seemed confusion, not to mention what he said made no sense whatsoever. She looked around, wondering what she was supposed to do. When the bird noticed that his charge had not left, he sighed, turned around and made a shoo-ing motion with his wings.

"Go outside," he said brusquely, "I have work to do."

Still looking confused, Miranda turned and did as he instructed, climbing up the ladders until she ended up at the top floor, looking out into the world outside.

The air up there was incredibly cold, she found, colder than in the little room she and Chlora shared. Winds blew at the sides of the tent, making them sway. The drafts were enough to make Miranda shiver again, as she looked out into a wonderland.

Millions of tiny white dots were falling from the sky, light, fluffy, eddying on the breeze. It reminded her of the hailstorms she had seen at the Hidden Land, and yet, they were obviously different. Large numbers of the stuff had piled up all around the area, forming big mounds. A cover had been laid over the grate where Diglett usually did sentry duty, and a small pile of white lay on it already.

Miranda stood for the longest time at the Guild's entrance, watching this spectacle in awe. Then, finally, she stepped out into the winds.

The white dots didn't hurt, for all their resemblance to the hailstorms that had made the journey through the Hidden Land so painful. Holding out her hands, she watched several of the dots fall softly onto her hands and disappear instantly, to be replaced with minuscule droplets of water. She looked up, blinking at the seamless gray expanse above her, peppered with the falling white dots.

"Miranda?" Chlora's voice made her turn. The Chikorita was standing just outside the Guild entrance, watching the former human with interest.

Without preamble, Miranda turned towards her friend, looking down at her hands. "What _is_ it?"she asked.

Chlora laughed, walking up to her, "It's snow silly."

"Snow..?" Miranda breathed.

"Yeah," Chlora grinned, "It's probably not going to stay long, the climate around here is too warm, but still. Haven't I mentioned it before?"

Miranda shook her head, "Nope. Not that I can remember."

"You probably wouldn't have known it from the future," Chlora told her, "It often falls during the winter, though not here, and not where my family lived either. I didn't see my first snow until after I left home."

"Why don't you usually see it here?"

"Same reason it won't be staying for long. It's usually too warm."

"Oh," Miranda suddenly found she was disappointed, "That's too bad... I like it."

"So do we all," Chlora laughed, "There's so much fun you can do with snow. You can have snowball fights, make sculptures, build things, make patterns..."

"Chlora," Miranda's voice cut off her rambling thoughts, "You do realize that I have no idea what those things are, right?"

"Oh..." Chlora's face fell guiltily. She opened her mouth to apologize when Miranda suddenly looked back at her, and the Chikorita saw a grin on her friend's face.

"Show me."

Chlora blinked. "Huh?"

"_Show me,_" Miranda repeated, holding out one hand. "You're the one who knows what to do here. I don't."

Chlora grinned, realizing what Miranda meant. Using a vine to grab Miranda's offered hand, the Chikorita began to lead her friend towards Treasure Town, calling back to her, "Come on! Let's find the other Guildmembers and see if they want to start a snow war!"


End file.
